Amanda Knox has said she will not return to Italy for the retrial of British student Meredith Kercher [GETTY]

Knox, 26, has always denied any involvement in the murder of Kercher, who was found with her throat slashed in the bedroom of a house she shared with the American in Perugia, central Italy in 2007.

Knox was originally convicted along with her former Italian lover Raffaele Sollecito but they were both cleared in 2011 after an appeal court ruled the prosecution was lacking.

Italy's supreme court has ordered a new trial but Knox, who has since returned to the US, claims she is unable to afford the trip.

Knox and former boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito were both cleared in 2011 [GETTY]

British student Meredith Kercher was found with her throat slashed in Perugia in 2007 [GETTY]

Speaking to the Sun on Sunday, Knox said: "The fact is that my presence has always been a distraction in the courtroom.

"Every single movement I made, every gesture, every facial expression, was the focus of scrutiny and distracted from the evidence in the case.

"If it were possible to go to the court and not have to deal with the issues of being afraid of being thrown back in prison again for an arbitrary reason, or for being able to financially afford it, absolutely I would want to be there."

The house where Meredith Kercher's murder took place [GETTY]

Knox added that she was presented in the first trial as "the dark lady… who decided Meredith was better than me and had to die".

In court, Knox was portrayed as a sexually deviant woman who brought about the murder of Kercher as part of an erotic game.

Knox's former boyfriend Sollecito recently rubbished any allegations of a sex game.

Knox was very emotional upon her return to America in 2011 [GETTY]

Rudy Guede is serving a 16-year sentence for the sexual assault and murder of the British student [GETTY]

“The fact is that my presence has always been a distraction in the courtroom”

Amanda Knox speaking to the Sun on Sunday

Speaking to Italian magazine Oggi, he said: "She wasn't remotely deviant… Amanda was shy, inexpert and a little ham-handed: like me in fact."

Knox and Sollecito have consistently maintained their innocence and claim they were out of the apartment on the night Kercher died.

Rudy Guede, a small-time drug dealer from the Ivory Coast, is the only person who remains behind bars over the case in Italy, where he is serving a 16-year sentence for sexually assaulting and killing the British student.

He has always admitted being present at Miss Kercher's home on the night of the murder but denied involvement.